System and method for maintaining wireless channels over a reverse link of a CDMA wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

A service option overlay for a CDMA wireless communication in which multiple allocatable subchannels are defined on a reverse link by assigning different code phases of a given long pseudonoise (PN) code to each subchannel. The instantaneous bandwidth needs of each on-line subscriber unit are then met by dynamically allocating none, one, or multiple subchannels on an as needed basis for each network layer connection. The system efficiently provides a relatively large number of virtual physical connections between the subscriber units and the base stations on the reverse link for extended idle periods such as when computers connected to the subscriber units are powered on, but not presently actively sending or receiving data. These maintenance subchannels permit the base station and the subscriber units to remain in phase and time synchronism in an idle mode and also request additional channels. This in turn allows fast acquisition of additional subchannels as needed by allocating new code phase subchannels. Preferably, the code phases of the new channels are assigned according to a predetermined code phase relationship with respect to the code phase of the corresponding maintenance subchannel.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/730,376,filed Dec. 5, 2000, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.09/088,413, filed Jun. 1, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,832, which isrelated to application Ser. No. 08/992,760, filed Dec. 17, 1997, nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,081,536, and related to application Ser. No. 08/992,759,filed Dec. 17, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,332, and related toapplication Ser. No. 09/030,049, filed Feb. 24, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No.6,236,647. The entire teachings of the above applications areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The increasing use of wireless telephones and personal computers has ledto a corresponding demand for advanced telecommunication services thatwere once thought to only be meant for use in specialized applications.In the 1980's, wireless voice communication became widely availablethrough the cellular telephone network. Such services were at firsttypically considered to be the exclusive province of the businessmanbecause of expected high subscriber costs. The same was also true foraccess to remotely distributed computer networks, whereby until veryrecently, only business people and large institutions could afford thenecessary computers and wireline access equipment. As a result of thewidespread availability of both technologies, the general population nowincreasingly wishes to not only have access to networks such as theInternet and private intranets, but also to access such networks in awireless fashion as well. This is particularly of concern for the usersof portable computers, laptop computers, hand-held personal digitalassistants and the like who would prefer to access such networks withoutbeing tethered to a telephone line.

There still is no widely available satisfactory solution for providinglow cost, broad geographical coverage, high speed access to theInternet, private intranets, and other networks using the existingwireless infrastructure. This situation is most likely an artifact ofseveral unfortunate circumstances. For one, the typical manner ofproviding high speed data service in the business environment over thewireline network is not readily adaptable to the voice grade serviceavailable in most homes or offices. Such standard high speed dataservices also do not lend themselves well to efficient transmission overstandard cellular wireless handsets. Furthermore, the existing cellularnetwork was originally designed only to deliver voice services. As aresult, the emphasis in present day digital wireless communicationschemes lies with voice, although certain schemes such as CDMA doprovide some measure of asymmetrical behavior for the accommodation ofdata transmission. For example, the data rate on an IS-95 forwardtraffic channel can be adjusted in increments from 1.2 kbps up to 9.6kbps for so-called Rate Set 1 and in increments from 1.8 kbps up to 14.4kbps for Rate Set 2.

Existing systems therefore typically provide a radio channel which canaccommodate maximum data rates only in the range of 14.4 kilobits persecond (kbps) at best in the forward direction. Such a low data ratechannel does not lend itself directly to transmitting data at rates of28.8 or even 56.6 kbps that are now commonly available using inexpensivewireline modems, not to mention even higher rates such as the 128 kbpswhich are available with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) typeequipment. Data rates at these levels are rapidly becoming the minimumacceptable rates for activities such as browsing web pages. Other typesof data networks using higher speed building blocks such as DigitalSubscriber Line (xDSL) service are just now coming into use in theUnited States. However, their costs have only been recently reduced tothe point where they are attractive to the residential customer.

Although such networks were known at the time that cellular systems wereoriginally deployed, for the most part, there is no provision forproviding higher speed ISDN- or xDSL-grade data services over cellularnetwork topologies. Unfortunately, in wireless environments, access tochannels by multiple subscribers is expensive and there is competitionfor them. Whether the multiple access is provided by the traditionalFrequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) using analog modulation on agroup of radio carriers, or by newer digital modulation schemes thatpermit sharing of a radio carrier using Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), the nature of the radiospectrum is that it is a medium that is expected to be shared. This isquite dissimilar to the traditional environment for data transmission,in which the wireline medium is relatively inexpensive to obtain, and istherefore not typically intended to be shared.

Other considerations are the characteristics of the data itself. Forexample, consider that access to web pages in general is burst-oriented,with asymmetrical data rate transmission requirements. In particular,the user of a remote client computer first specifies the address of aweb page to a browser program. The browser program then sends this webpage address data, which is typically 100 bytes or less in length, overthe network to a server computer. The server computer then responds withthe content of the requested web page, which may include anywhere from10 kilobytes to several megabytes of text, image, audio, or even videodata. The user then may spend at least several seconds or even severalminutes reading the content of the page before requesting that anotherpage be downloaded. Therefore, the required forward channel data rates,that is, from the base station to the subscriber, are typically manytimes greater than the required reverse channel data rates.

In an office environment, the nature of most employees' computer workhabits is typically to check a few web pages and then to do somethingelse for extended period of time, such as to access locally stored dataor to even stop using the computer altogether. Therefore, even thoughsuch users may expect to remain connected to the Internet or privateintranet continuously during an entire day, the actual overall nature ofthe need to support a required data transfer activity to and from aparticular subscriber unit is actually quite sporadic.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Problem Statement

What is needed is an efficient scheme for supporting wireless datacommunication such as from portable computers to computer networks suchas the Internet and private intranets using widely availableinfrastructure. Unfortunately, even the most modern wireless standardsin widespread use such as CDMA do not provide adequate structure forsupporting the most common activities, such as web page browsing. In theforward and reverse link direction, the maximum available channelbandwidth in an IS-95 type CDMA system is only 14.4 kbps. Due to IS-95being circuit-switched, there are only a maximum of 64 circuit-switchedusers that can be active at one time. In practicality, this limit isdifficult to attain, and 20 or 30 simultaneous users are typically used.

In addition, the existing CDMA system requires certain operations beforea channel can be used. Both access and traffic channels are modulated byso-called long code pseudonoise (PN) sequences; therefore, in order forthe receiver to work properly it must first be synchronized with thetransmitter. The setting up and tearing down of channels thereforerequires overhead to perform such synchronization. This overhead resultsin a noticeable delay to the user of the subscriber unit.

An attractive method of increasing data rate for a given user is thesharing of channels in both the forward and reverse link direction. Thisis an attractive option, especially with the ease of obtaining multipleaccess with CDMA; additional users can be supported by simply addingadditional codes for the forward link, or code phases in the reverselink for an IS-95 system. Ideally, this subchannel overhead would beminimized so that when additional subchannels need to be allocated to aconnection, they are available as rapidly as possible.

To maintain synchronization, it is therefore advantageous to provide thesubchannels in such a way that the lowest possible speed connection isprovided on a reverse link while at the same time maintaining efficientand fast ramp-up of additional code phase channels on demand. This inturn would maximize the number of available connections while minimizingthe impact on the overall system capacity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a service option overlay for an IS-95-like CDMAwireless communication system which accomplishes the above requirements.In particular, a number of subchannels for a forward link are definedwithin a single CDMA radio channel bandwidth, such as by assigningdifferent orthogonal codes to each sub-channel. Multiple subchannels aredefined on the reverse link by assigning different code phases of agiven long pseudonoise (PN) code to each subchannel. The instantaneousbandwidth needs of each on-line subscriber unit are then met bydynamically allocating none, one, or multiple subchannels on an asneeded basis for each network layer connection.

More particularly, the present invention efficiently provides arelatively large number of virtual physical connections between thesubscriber units and the base stations on the reverse link for extendedidle periods such as when computers connected to the subscriber unitsare powered on, but not presently actively sending or receiving data.These maintenance subchannels permit the base station and the subscriberunits to remain in phase and time synchronism in an idle mode and alsorequest additional channels. This in turn allows fast acquisition ofadditional subchannels as needed by allocating new code phasesubchannels. Preferably, the code phases of the new channels areassigned according to a predetermined code phase relationship withrespect to the code phase of the corresponding maintenance subchannel.

In an idle mode, the subscriber unit sends a synchronization or“heartbeat” message on the maintenance subchannel at a data rate whichneed only be fast enough to allow the subscriber unit to maintainsynchronization with the base station. The duration of the heartbeatsignal is determined by considering the capture or locking range of thecode phase locking circuits in the receiver at the base station.

For example, the receiver typically has a PN code correlator running atthe code chip rate. One example of such a code correlator uses a delaylock loop consisting of an early-late detector. A loop filter controlsthe bandwidth of the loop which in turn determines how long the codecorrelator must be allowed to operate before it can guarantee phaselock. This loop time constant determines the amount of “jitter” that canbe tolerated; phase lock is typically considered to be maintainable whenthis is equal to a fraction of a chip time, such as about ⅛ of a chiptime.

The heartbeat messages are preferably sent in time slots formed on thesubchannels defined by the code phases. The use of time slotting allowsa minimum number of dedicated base station receivers to maintain theidle reverse links. In particular, the reverse maintenance channel linksare provided using multiple phases of the same long code as well as byassigning a time slot on such code to each subscriber unit. This reducesthe overhead of maintaining a large number of connections at the basestation.

Because of the time slotted nature of the reverse maintenance channel,the base station receiver can also be time shared among these variousreverse links. To permit this, during each time slot allocated to aparticular subscriber unit, the base station receiver first loadsinformation concerning the last known state of its phase lock such asthe last known state of early-late correlators. It then trains theearly-late correlators for the required time to ensure that phase lockis still valid, and stores the state of the correlators at the end ofthe time slot.

When additional subchannels are required to meet bandwidth demand, theadditional code phases are assigned in a predetermined phaserelationship with respect to the locked code in order to minimizeoverhead transmissions which would otherwise be needed from the basestation traffic channel processor. As a result, many thousands of idlesubscriber units may be supported on a single CDMA reverse link radiochannel while at the same time minimizing start up delay when channelsmust be allocated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following more particulardescription of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer tothe same parts throughout the different views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system making useof a bandwidth management scheme according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing how subchannels are assigned within a givenradio forward link frequency (RF) channel.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how subchannels are assigned within a givenreverse link RF channel.

FIG. 4 is a state diagram for a reverse link bandwidth managementfunction in the subscriber unit; and

FIG. 5 is a state diagram of the reverse link bandwidth managementfunction in the base station.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Turning attention now to the drawings more particularly, FIG. 1 is ablock diagram of a system 100 for providing high speed data and voiceservice over a wireless connection by seamlessly integrating a digitaldata protocol such as, for example, Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN) with a digitally modulated wireless service such as Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA).

The system 100 consists of two different types of components, includingsubscriber units 101-1, 101-2, . . . , 101-u (collectively, thesubscriber units 101) and one or more base stations 170. The subscriberunits 101 and base stations 170 cooperate to provide the functionsnecessary in order to provide wireless data services to a portablecomputing device 110 such as a laptop computer, portable computer,personal digital assistant (PDA) or the like. The base station 170 alsocooperates with the subscriber units 101 to permit the ultimatetransmission of data to and from the subscriber unit and the PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN) 180.

More particularly, data and/or voice services are also provided by thesubscriber unit 101 to the portable computer 110 as well as one or moreother devices such as telephones 112-1, 112-2 (collectively referred toherein as telephones 112). The telephones 112 themselves may in turn beconnected to other modems and computers which are not shown in FIG. 1.In the usual parlance of ISDN, the portable computer 110 and telephones112 are referred to as terminal equipment (TE). The subscriber unit 101provides the functions referred to as a network termination type 1(NT-1). The illustrated subscriber unit 101 is in particular meant tooperate with a so-called basic rate interface (BRI) type ISDN connectionthat provides two bearer or “B” channels and a single data or “D”channel with the usual designation being 2B+D.

The subscriber unit 101 itself consists of an ISDN modem 120, a devicereferred to herein as the protocol converter 130 that performs thevarious functions according to the invention including spoofing 132 andbandwidth management 134, a CDMA transceiver 140, and subscriber unitantenna 150. The various components of the subscriber unit 101 may berealized in discrete devices or as an integrated unit. For example, anexisting conventional ISDN modem 120 such as is readily available fromany number of manufacturers may be used together with existing CDMAtransceivers 140. In this case, the unique functions are providedentirely by the protocol converter 130 which may be sold as a separatedevice. Alternatively, the ISDN modem 120, protocol converter 130, andCDMA transceiver 140 maybe integrated as a complete unit and sold as asingle subscriber unit device 101. Other types of interface connectionssuch as Ethernet or PCMCIA may be used to connect the computing deviceto the protocol converter 130. The device may also interface to anEthernet interface rather than an ISDN “U” interface.

The ISDN modem 120 converts data and voice signals between the terminalequipment 110 and 112 to format required by the standard ISDN “U”interface. The U interface is a reference point in ISDN systems thatdesignates a point of the connection between the network termination(NT) and the telephone company.

The protocol converter 130 performs spoofing 132 and basic bandwidthmanagement 134 functions. In general, spoofing 132 consists of insuringthat the subscriber unit 101 appears to the terminal equipment 110, 112that is connected to the public switched telephone network 180 on theother side of the base station 170 at all times. The bandwidthmanagement function 134 is responsible for allocating and deallocatingCDMA radio channels 160 as required. Bandwidth management 134 alsoincludes the dynamic management of the bandwidth allocated to a givensession by dynamically assigning sub-portions of the CDMA radio channels160 in a manner which is more fully described below.

The CDMA transceiver 140 accepts the data from the protocol converter130 and reformats this data in appropriate form for transmission througha subscriber unit antenna 150 over CDMA radio link 160-1. The CDMAtransceiver 140 may operate over only a single 1.25 MHz radio frequencychannel or, alternatively, in a preferred embodiment, may be tunableover multiple allocatable radio frequency channels.

CDMA signal transmissions are then received and processed by the basestation equipment 170. The base station equipment 170 typically consistsof multichannel antennas 171, multiple CDMA transceivers 172, and abandwidth management functionality 174. Bandwidth management 174controls the allocation of CDMA radio channels 160 and subchannels, in amanner analogous to the subscriber unit 101. The base station 170 thencouples the demodulated radio signals to the Public Switch TelephoneNetwork (PSTN) 180 in a manner which is well known in the art. Forexample, the base station 170 may communicate with the PSTN 180 over anynumber of different efficient communication protocols such as primaryrate ISDN, or other LAPD based protocols such as IS-634 or V5.2.

It should also be understood that data signals travel bidirectionallyacross the CDMA radio channels 160. In other words, data signalsreceived from the PSTN 180 are coupled to the portable computer 110 in aforward link direction, and data signals originating at the portablecomputer 110 are coupled to the PSTN 180 in a so-called reverse linkdirection. The present invention involves in particular the manner ofimplementing the reverse link channels.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1 briefly, spoofing 134 therefore involveshaving the CDMA transceiver 140 loop back these synchronous data bitsover the ISDN communication path to spoof the terminal equipment 110,112 into believing that a sufficiently wide wireless communication link160 is continuously available. However, only when there is actually datapresent from the terminal equipment to the wireless transceiver 140 iswireless bandwidth allocated. Therefore, the network layer need notallocate the assigned wireless bandwidth for the entirety of thecommunications session. That is, when data is not being presented uponthe terminal equipment to the network equipment, the bandwidthmanagement function 134 deallocates initially assigned radio channelbandwidth 160 and makes it available for another transceiver and anothersubscriber unit 101.

In order to better understand how bandwidth management 134 and 174accomplish the dynamic allocation of radio channels, turn attention nowto FIG. 2. This figure illustrates one possible frequency plan for thewireless links 160 according to the invention. In particular, a typicaltransceiver 170 can be tuned on command to any 1.25 MHz channel within amuch larger bandwidth, such as up to 30 MHz. In the case of location inexisting cellular radio frequency bands, these bandwidths are typicallymade available in the range of from 800 to 900 MHz. For personalcommunication systems (PCS) type wireless systems, the bandwidth istypically allocated in the range from about 1.8 to 2.0 GigaHertz (GHz).In addition, there are typically two matching bands activesimultaneously, separated by a guard band, such as 80 MHz; the twomatching bands form forward and reverse full duplex link.

Each of the CDMA transceivers, such as transceiver 140 in the subscriberunit 101, and transceivers 172 in the base station 170, are capable ofbeing tuned at any given point in time to a given 1.25 MHz radiofrequency channel. It is generally understood that such 1.25 MHz radiofrequency carrier provides, at best, a total equivalent of about 500 to600 kbps maximum data rate transmission within acceptable bit error ratelimitations.

In contrast to this, the present invention subdivides the availableapproximately 500 to 600 kbps data rate into a relatively large numberof subchannels. In the illustrated example, the bandwidth is dividedinto sixty-four (64) subchannels 300, each providing an 8 kbps datarate. A given subchannel 300 is physically implemented by encoding atransmission with one of a number of different assignable pseudorandomcodes. For example, the 64 subchannels 300 may be defined within asingle CDMA RF carrier by using a different orthogonal code for eachdefined subchannel 300 for example, for the forward link.

As mentioned above, subchannels 300 are allocated only as needed. Forexample, multiple subchannels 300 are granted during times when aparticular ISDN subscriber unit 101 is requesting that large amounts ofdata be transferred. These subchannels 300 are quickly released duringtimes when the subscriber unit 101 is relatively lightly loaded.

The present invention relates in particular to maintaining the reverselink so that synchronization of the subchannels does not need to bereestablished each time that channels are taken away and then grantedback.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the arrangement of how the subchannelsare assigned on the reverse link. It is desirable to use a single radiocarrier signal on the reverse link to the extent possible to conservepower as well as to conserve the receiver resources which must be madeavailable at the base station. Therefore, a single 1.2288 MHz band 350is selected out of the available radio spectrum.

A relatively large number, N, such as 1000 individual subscriber unitsare then supported by using a single long pseudonoise (PN) code in aparticular way. First, a number, p, of code phases are selected from theavailable 2⁴²−1 different long code phases. A given long code phase isunique to a particular subscriber unit and never changes. As will beexplained, this is also true for supplemental code phases as well. Thecode p phases shifts are then used to provide p subchannels. Next, eachof the p subchannels are further divided into s time slots. The timeslotting is used only during the idle mode, and provides two advantages;it reduces the numbers of “maintenance” receivers in the base station,and it reduces the impact to reverse channel capacity by reducingtransmit power and thus interference. Therefore, the maximum supportablenumber of supportable subscriber units, N, is p times s. During Idlemode, use of the same PN code with different phases and time slotsprovides many different subchannels with permits using a single rakereceiver in the base station 104.

In the above mentioned channel allocation scheme, radio resources areexpected to be allocated on an as-needed basis. However, considerationmust also be given to the fact that normally, in order set up a new CDMAchannel, a given reverse link channel must be given time to acquire codephase lock at the receiver. The present invention avoids the need towait for each channel to acquire code phase lock each time that it isset up by several mechanisms which are described more fully below. Ingeneral, the technique is to send a maintenance signal at a rate whichis sufficient to maintain code phase lock for each subchannel even inthe absence of data.

The objective here is to minimize the size of each time slot, which inturn maximizes the number of subscribers that can be maintained in anidle mode. The size, t, of each time slot is determined by the minimumtime that it takes to guarantee phase lock between the transmitter atthe subscriber unit and the receiver in the base station. In particular,a code correlator in the receiver must receive a maintenance or“heartbeat” signal consisting of at least a certain number ofmaintenance bits over a certain unit of time. In the limit, thisheartbeat signal is sent by sending at least one bit from eachsubscriber unit on each reverse link at a predetermined time, e.g., itsdesignated time slot on a predetermined one of the N subchannels.

The minimum time slot duration, t, therefore depends upon a number offactors including the signal to noise ratio and the expected maximumvelocity of the subscriber unit within the cell. With respect to signalto noise ratio, this depends on

Eb/No+Io

where Eb is the energy per bit, No is the ambient noise floor, and Io isthe mutual interference from other coded transmissions of the othersub-channels on the reverse link sharing the same spectrum. Typically,to close the link requires integration over 8 chip times at thereceiver, and a multiple of 20 times that is typically needed toguarantee detection. Therefore, about 160 chip times are typicallyrequired to correctly receive the coded signal on the reverse link. Fora 1.2288 MHz code, Tc, the chip time, is 813.33 ns, so that this minimumintegration time is about 130 μs. This in turn sets the absolute minimumduration of a data bit, and therefore, the minimum duration of a slottime, t. The minimum slot time of 130 μs means that at a maximum, 7692time slots can be made available per second for each phase coded signal.

To be consistent with certain power control group timing requirements,the time slot duration can be relaxed somewhat. For example, in theIS-95 standard, a power control group timing requirement requires apower output sample from each subscriber unit every 1.25 ms.

Once code phase lock is acquired, the duration of the heartbeat signalis determined by considering the capture or locking range of the codephase locking circuits in the receiver at the base station. For example,the receiver typically has a PN code correlator running at the code chiprate. One example of such a code correlator uses a delay lock loopconsisting of an early-late detector. A loop filter controls thebandwidth of this loop which in turn determines how long the codecorrelator must be allowed to operate before it can guarantee phaselock. This loop time constant determines the amount of “jitter” that canbe tolerated in the code correlator, such as about ⅛ of a chip time, Tc.

In the preferred embodiment, the system 100 is intended to supportso-called nomadic mobility. That is, high mobility operation withinmoving vehicles typical of cellular telephony is not expected to benecessary. Rather, the typical user of a portable computer who is activeis moving at only brisk walking speeds of about 4.5 miles per hour(MPH). At 4.5 MPH, corresponding to a velocity of 6.6 feet per second, auser will move 101 feet in ⅛ of the 1/1.2288 MHz chip time (Tc).Therefore, it will take about 101 feet divided by 6.6 feet, or about 15seconds for such a user to move a distance which is sufficiently far forhim to a point where the code phase synchronization loop cannot beguaranteed to remain locked. Therefore, as long as a completesynchronization signal is sent for a given reverse link channel every 15seconds, the reverse link loop will therefore remain in lock.

FIG. 4 is a state diagram for a reverse link bandwidth managementfunction in the subscriber unit. In an idle mode 400, a first state 401is entered in which the subscriber unit receives a time slot assignmentfor its code phase reverse channel. This time slot is only used in theidle mode. The same long code phase is pre-assigned and is permanent tothe subscriber unit.

In a next state 402, the heartbeat signal is sent in the assigned timeslots. A state 403 is then entered in which the subscriber unit monitorsits internal data buffers to determine whether additional code phasechannels are required to support the establishment of a reverse linkwith sufficient bandwidth to support an active traffic channel. If thisis not the case, then the subscriber returns to state 402 and remains inthe idle mode 400.

Prior to entering the Active state 405 from Idle mode 400, thesubscriber unit must make a request to the base station. If granted,(step 403-b), processing proceeds to step 451, and if not granted,processing proceeds to step 402. However, the subscriber unit knows thatit is assigned code phase channels in a predetermined relationship tothe code phase channel of its fundamental channel, i.e.,

 P _(n+1) =F{P _(o)}

where P_(n+1) is the code phase for the new channel (n+1), and P_(o) isthe code phase assigned to the fundamental channel for the particularsubscriber. Such a code phase relationship ℑ may be, for example, toselect uniformly from the available 2⁴² codes, every 2⁴²/2¹⁰'th or every2³²'th code phase in a system which is supporting 1024 (2¹⁰) reverselinks, for a single subscriber.

A number, C, of these new code phases are therefore instantaneouslycalculated based simply upon the number of additional code phasechannels, and without the need to require code phase synchronization foreach new channel.

After step 452 is processed, a request is made for code phase channels.If granted (step 452-b), processing proceeds to step 453, and if notgranted, processing proceeds to step 451 in order to process theadditional channel requests. In a next state 453, the subscriber unitbegins transmitting its data on its assigned code phase channels. Instate 454, it continues to monitor its internal data buffers and itsassociated forward access channel to determine when to return to theidle mode 400, to state 451, to determine if new code phase channelsmust be assigned, or to state 455, where they are deallocated.

FIG. 5 is a state diagram of idle mode processing in the reverse linkmanagement function in the base station 104. In a first state 501, foreach idle subscriber unit 101, a state 502 is entered in which a storedstate of the correlators for the present time slot (p,s) from a previoussynchronization session is read. In a next state 503, an early-latecorrelator is retrained for the time slot duration, t. In a next state504, the correlator state is stored; in state 505, the loop is continuedfor each subscriber.

Equivalents

For example, instead of ISDN, other wireline and network protocols maybe encapsulated, such as xDSL, Ethernet, and X.25, and therefore mayadvantageously use the dynamic wireless subchannel assignment schemedescribed herein.

Those skilled in the art will recognize or be able to ascertain using nomore than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specificembodiments of the invention described specifically herein. Suchequivalents are intended to be encompassed in the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for maintaining wireless communications links between a base station processor and a plurality of subscriber access units comprising: defining a plurality of wireless communication channels operable for wireless communication between the base station processor and at least one of the subscriber access units, each of the subscriber access units corresponding to a user; defining a plurality of time slots within at least one of the wireless communication channels; determining at least one of a plurality of users; assigning at least one of the plurality of time slots to each of the determined plurality of users; transmitting a wireless signal from at least one of the plurality of users on one of the plurality of wireless communication channels during the time slot corresponding to that user, the wireless signal sufficient to maintain synchronization between the user and the base station; receiving the wireless signal at the base station processor; determining, from the time slot in which the message was received, the identity of the user; and determining whether the wireless signal is indicative of a need for an additional wireless communication channel for the identified user.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the synchronization is maintained by maintaining a code phase lock with the base station.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signal contains information sufficient to maintain an idling mode connection.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of wireless communication channels further includes at least one dedicated channel and at least one shared channel.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the assigning of time slots occurs in the shared channels.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the shared wireless channels are defined by orthogonal codes.
 7. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one shared channels further comprises a plurality of shared channels, each of the shared channels indicative of information.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the plurality of shared channels further includes a first wireless code channel and a second wireless code channel.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein determining the need for additional channels further comprises determining whether the wireless signal corresponds to the first wireless code channel or the second wireless code channel.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the first wireless code channel and the second wireless code channel are orthogonal.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein determining whether the message is indicative of a request for a wireless channel further comprises determining in which of the first wireless code channel and the second wireless code channel the message was transmitted.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the time slot is indicative of the user.
 13. The method of claim 1 wherein each user corresponds to a code phase.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the wireless signal is transmitted in the code phase corresponding to the particular user.
 15. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signal is indicative of one of either a standby message and a request to go active message.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the wireless signal indicative of the request to go active message and the wireless signal indicative of the heartbeat message are orthogonal.
 17. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether an additional wireless channel is needed further comprises passing the wireless signal through a correlation filter.
 18. The method of claim 1 wherein the duration of the time slots is such that each of the plurality of users perceives a dedicated wireless channel.
 19. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signal is sent at a power level within a predetermined threshold of the minimal power level required to maintain an idling mode connection.
 20. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless signal is a baseband signal.
 21. The method of claim 20 wherein the wireless signal does not include modulated data.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the information is pilot information.
 23. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of users is connected to a subscriber access unit.
 24. The method of claim 1 wherein the base station processor is operable to receive wireless signals from the plurality of subscriber access units.
 25. A system for maintaining wireless communications links between a base station processor and a plurality of subscriber access unit comprising: a base station processor; at least one subscriber access unit; a plurality of wireless communication channels operable for wireless communication between the base station processor and at least one of the subscriber access units, each of the subscriber access units corresponding to a user; a plurality of time slots within at least one of the wireless communication channels, each of the time slots operable to be assigned to one of the plurality of users; a wireless signal operable to be transmitted from at least one of the plurality of users on one of the plurality of wireless communication channels during the time slot corresponding to that user, the wireless signal sufficient to maintain synchronization between the user and the base station processor; a transceiver in the base station processor and operable to receive the wireless signal; and a bandwidth manager in the base station processor operable to determine, from the time slot in which the message was received, the identity of the user, the bandwidth manager further operable to determine whether the wireless signal is indicative of a need for an additional wireless communication channel for the identified user.
 26. The system of claim 25 wherein the transceiver is operable to provide synchronization by maintaining a code phase lock with the base station.
 27. The system of claim 25 wherein the wireless signal contains information sufficient to maintain an idling mode connection.
 28. The system of claim 25 wherein the plurality of wireless communication channels further includes at least one dedicated channel and at least one shared channel.
 29. The system of claim 28 wherein the at least one shared channels further comprises a plurality of shared channels, each of the shared channels indicative of information.
 30. The system of claim 29 wherein the plurality of shared channels further includes a first wireless code channel and a second wireless code channel.
 31. The system of claim 30 wherein the first wireless code channel corresponds to maintaining synchronization and the second wireless code channel corresponds to a need for additional channels.
 32. The system of claim 30 wherein the first wireless code channel and the second wireless code channel are orthogonal.
 33. The system of claim 30 further comprising a heartbeat correlation filter operable to determine on which of the first and second wireless code channels the wireless message was transmitted.
 34. The system of claim 25 wherein the time slots are adapted to be assigned in the shared channels.
 35. The system of claim 25 wherein each of the plurality of time slots is indicative of a particular user.
 36. The system of claim 25 wherein the wireless channels are defined by orthogonal codes.
 37. The system of claim 25 wherein each user corresponds to a unique time slot in a shard code phase.
 38. The system of claim 37 wherein the wireless signal is transmitted in the code phase corresponding to the particular user.
 39. The system of claim 25 wherein the wireless signal is indicative of one of either a standby message and a request to go active message.
 40. The system of claim 39 wherein the wireless signal are indicative of the request to go active message and the wireless signal indicative of the heartbeat message are orthogonal.
 41. The system of claim 25 wherein the duration of the time slots is such that each of the plurality of users perceives a dedicated wireless channel.
 42. The system of claim 25 wherein the wireless signal further comprises a power level within a predetermined threshold of the minimal power level required to maintain an idling mode connection.
 43. The system of claim 25 wherein the wireless signal is a baseband signal.
 44. The system of claim 43 wherein the wireless signal does not include modulated data.
 45. The system of claim 44 wherein the wireless signal further comprises pilot information.
 46. The system of claim 25 wherein each of the plurality of users is connected to a subscriber access unit.
 47. The system of claim 25 wherein the base station processor is operable to receive wireless signals from the plurality of subscriber access units. 